Romanian President to Gates: Piracy Helped Our Country

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Romanian President to Gates: Piracy Helped Our Country

In a joint news conference with Bill Gates, Romanian President Traian Basescu stated, "Piracy helped the young generation discover computers. Itset off the development of the IT industry in Romania. It helped Romanians improve their creative capacity in theIT industry, which has become famous around the world ... Tenyears ago, it was an investment in Romania's friendship withMicrosoft and with Bill Gates."

Ironically, the news conference was to mark the opening of a Microsoft global technical center in Bucharest.

Formerly Communist Romania has anti-piracy legislation, but it is ill-enforced with piracy rates estimated to be over 70%. Investors cite Romania's IT sector as extremely promising due to its high technical literacy, low wages, and "thriving underworld of computer hackers."